Best and worst gyms in Central Mass.

Wednesday

Feb 13, 2013 at 2:48 PM

By Steve Lanava STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER

March Madness will soon be upon us, and camera enthusiasts have begun dusting off their lenses as they prepare to make great photographs of basketball players in action on the hardwood courts of the area's gymnasiums.

But wait! Not all gyms are alike. Sure, they typically measure between 84 and 94 feet in length by 50 feet wide.

However, that's where their similarities end. The lights used to illuminate the various courts at Central Massachusetts high schools and colleges vary greatly. Some gyms are a pleasure to photograph in; others are so dimly lit that action photography is nearly impossible.

Some of these antiquated facilities still use the same lights that were installed when the schools were built generations ago.

Photographers must push their equipment and film cards to their limits, resulting in grainy, low resolution images, void of natural colors. Many of the older gyms actually necessitate that the photographer supply his or her own lighting source, such as an on-camera flash, resulting in unnatural, washed-out images, similar to those of our sports photojournalist forefathers, dating to the 1940's advent of Tri-X film.

Many coaches will halt games and demand that a photographer using direct flash stop immediately, as the high-intensity light source that originates from a direct flashgun can cause an athlete to suffer flash blindness or be temporarily distracted. Use of flash photography at a basketball game should be considered only as a last resort.

But I digress. Having had the privilege of photographing basketball in nearly every Central Massachusetts gym over the past 30 years, I have a built-in mental list of my favorite gyms in which to shoot photographs.

I also have a list of gyms that send chills down my spine, wondering if I'll be able to escape with a single decent photo.

I thought it might be interesting to make a definitive list of the best (and worst) gyms in which to photograph basketball games. And to be fair, scientific, and unbiased while compiling these lists, I have examined basketball photographs taken from all of the region's gyms and have compared the specific technical camera data, which is automatically recorded in each photo's metadata information.

The results, which were generally anticipated, did reveal some unexpected interesting surprise findings.

WPI's Harrington Gymnasium, with its black, light-absorbing padding on the walls, had always been considered average when it came to lighting. While shooting a game there recently, I noticed that the lighting appeared to be brighter than usual. Alfredo DiMauro Jr., WPI's assistant vice president for facilities, confirmed that the university had indeed relamped all of the ceiling lights directly over the Harrington court in mid-January Some ballasts were replaced. This marked improvement in lighting at WPI is what actually prompted me to take on the task of evaluating all of the area's gyms. I establish the definitive Best and Worst Gyms list.

• Marlboro  Home of the Panthers surprises at topping out the list

• Tantasqua  Modern new school coupled with bright lighting

• North  State-of-the-art lighting at this new school earns the Polar Bears' gym a spot at the top